This past weekend was the final beta period before the official release of Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn on the Playstation 4. I was incredibly impressed by what I saw. The PS4 version is vastly superior to that of the PS3 version. The visuals are heavily upgraded, it has a much better frame rate, greater animation detail, and denser particle effects. In the time I spent with the game on PS3, there always seemed to be some degree of input lag. I didn't get that feeling at all on the PS4, cycling through menus and initiating attack actions all felt quick and responsive. FF14 does take advantage of the Dualshock 4's touch pad but, unlike the rest of the controls, it felt too laggy and imprecise to be a real mouse substitute. There is an option for a full mouse + keyboard mode that switches the UI to a more traditional PC set up. However, the mode is a bit difficult to use while playing on a couch. The best experience I had was using the Dualshock 4 as my main control device, while also having a wireless keyboard nearby for chatting and to easily bring up things, like the map, without having to cycle through the start menu.

For the course of the beta weekend I played on a character I had previously made on the PS3, an archer in his mid 30s. I mostly played solo, working on the main scenario quests. The quests were fun but not much different than your standard MMO objectives, go get me this or kill x amount of these monsters. They also involved too much travel for my taste. Some had me traveling across half of Eorzea, only to do a few extra quests and then make my way back to the original quest giver. I was forced to participate in one dungeon to progress the story. Playing as a dps class, my wait for a random group was around 30 minutes. Thankfully I got a good group and we cleared it fairly quickly, without any deaths. The same could not be said of the Trial I had to play. Trials require a group but, in my experience so far, they only have one boss and no trash mobs. The boss I fought was Titan and he was quite the challenge. It took my random group over 30 minutes of attempts to finally get it right and take him down. The fight features some very unforgiving mechanics that can easily result in a group wipe. As a mid-game boss, that absolutely must be defeated in order to continue the main story quests, I feel that Titan is way too difficult. The purpose of these story bosses should be to ease players into the idea of raid level bosses and group mechanics.

While some aspects of FF14's design confuses and irritates me, I find that the majority of the content is a lot of fun to play. I'll definitely be subbing once the game is out and I can't wait to see what the end game content is like.

Okami was critically beloved but never saw strong sales. Which is such a shame because I consider Okami to be one of the greatest games ever made. Okami is perfect in just about every way, featuring an excellent story, charming characters, intense boss battles, and the most unique and beautiful visuals I've ever seen. Originally released for the Playstation 2 in 2006, Okami was also ported to the Wii in 2008, and the Playstation 3 received a HD remaster version in 2012. A pseudo-sequel was released for the Nintendo DS in 2011, titled OkamiDen. It was a fine game but the developers had to sacrifice a lot to get it to run on the DS. Okami deserves a full fledged sequel, possibly on the Wii U. The Wii U's gamepad would work really well with Amaterasu's Celestial Brush techniques. At this point though, I'd be ecstatic to see any sort of sequel on any platform.

Crash Bandicoot

The original Crash Bandicoot games were among the most important exclusives for Sony's first console. The first three games went on to sell over 17 million copies. Crash was essentially Sony's Mario but once Naughty Dog ceased development on the franchise, that connection vanished. Naughty Dog's final Crash game was actually a spin-off title, Crash Team Racing, which was released in 1999. CTR was one of the most fun games I had ever played and I thought it was much better than Mario Kart 64. The Playstation did get one more Crash exclusive in the form of Crash Bash, a party game made by Eurocom Entertainment Software. The series has since seen many sequels, some of them were okay, like Wrath of Cortex and Twinsanity, but most have been pretty awful. The latest game to be released, Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 2, was in 2010 for mobile iOS. Recently, there was hope for a brand new quality game to come to the PS4 when it was rumored that Sony had reacquired the rights. Sadly, this rumor turned out to be false. So, with Universal seemingly content to just hold onto those rights, we might not see another truly great Crash game ever again.

There have been many game franchises over the years that have risen to massive popular heights, only to eventually fade away into obscurity. Other times, a game will have huge critical success but for whatever reason, it fails to sell enough copies to warrant a sequel. This is a list of the game series I would most like to see receive a sequel or reboot.

Jak and Daxter

The Jak games are among my most favorite from the Playstation 2 era, especially Jak 2. Jak 2 was also a major turning point for Naughty Dog, featuring a heaver emphasis on story and a much darker tone than their previous work. There actually almost was a new Jak game for the Playstation 3. After the release of Uncharted 2, Naughty Dog became a two team studio. Team A went on to make Uncharted 3, while Team B started work a new Jak title. However, they said they couldn't get it to feel right and the project was shelved. It was entirely possible that Team A could try and make the game work but it has since been confirmed that they are working on a new Uncharted title for the Playstation 4. With the colossal success of The Last of Us, I assume Team B will follow that up with a sequel of some sort. So, unfortunately, a new Jak game may never happen.

Metroid

For all I know, a new Metroid game is being developed right now. A couple years ago, everyone assumed Retro Studios was making one for the Wii U but it turned out they were actually working on Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze. Since most fans like to pretend that "Other M" never happened, the last true Metroid game released was Metroid Prime 3: Corruption in 2007. The last all-new 2D title released was Metroid Fusion in 2002, though we did get an awesome remake of the original, Metroid: Zero Mission, in 2004. A brand new 2D Metroid was in development for years but was never released for unknown reasons. Titled Metroid Dread, the game was supposed to come out around 2007. It seems highly doubtful that any version of "Dread" will ever be released. Why Nintendo doesn't push for more quality Metroid games is beyond me. It's obvious that they're in high demand. I guess we can all just hope that now that "Tropical Freeze" has been released, Retro Studios is working on a worthy successor to the 'Prime" trilogy.

Metal Gear Solid 5: Ground Zeroes is the biggest gaming ripoff I've ever seen. The cheapest version of this game is the Ps3/360 digital version, which costs $20. A physical copy for ps3/ps4/360/Xbone all cost $30, and the next-gen digital also costs $30. Either price is beyond outrageous for the minimal content the game contains.

I finished the main story mission in around one hour. Beating that did unlock some side missions but all together they might last you another hour. The side missions also have you doing pretty much the exact same kind of stuff you did in the main mission. They all take place within the same location and have you facing off against the same enemies. So truly, you can see everything the game has to offer in that first hour. $30 for one hour worth of content is insane.

The gameplay itself isn't even all that great. The game is advertised as "open world" but the space you have to play around in is quite small. Going for a no kill and no detection playthrough is much more difficult here than in previous MGS games due to Ground Zeroes' lack of radar. The closest thing to radar you have is the ability to tag enemies with your binoculars. This acts as a lousy substitute though, as you obviously can't tag any enemies out of your line of sight. Movement feels too stiff and pressing up against walls or objects isn't sticky enough. The enemy intelligence seems random as I was able to run right past some guards with no issue, while at other times a guard very far from my location would somehow spot me and immediately alert everyone.

Obviously, due to its short length, the story is essentially nonexistent and what is there doesn't make much sense. I assume most of story elements are meant to be fleshed out in "The Phantom Pain". Which does make sense, considering this content was originally planned to just be the prologue of "The Phantom Pain", acting as that game's tutorial level. Instead, Konami and Kojima decided to exploit the fact that there hasn't been a true MGS game in awhile and separate that prologue from the main game and then sell it for $30.

I can't end this warning without also bringing up Snake's new voice actor, Kiefer Sutherland. Sutherland is a fine actor but I don't understand the need for the switch. David Hayter has been voicing the characters of Snake / Big Boss since the original Metal Gear Solid, hearing someone one else's voice come from the character really threw me off. Especially when the switch is completely unnecessary.

The word unnecessary adequately describes "Ground Zeroes". There's not enough content here to really judge the new combat and stealth mechanics. It doesn't tell a complete story. There's absolutely no reason that this content should have been sold. Konami should have either kept this apart of the main game, given it away as a free demo, or distributed it as a bonus for pre-ordering 'The Phantom Pain".